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Microsoft is finally cracking down on scammers who offer to fix non-existent computer problems for hundreds of dollars. In a first strike, Microsoft sued several U.S. companies it said are involved in fake tech support scams.
For years, people have been receiving calls from companies pretending to be official Microsoft tech support staff, who try to convince the victim that their computer is infected with a virus. The scammers often offer to deal with it for a fee.
Former Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer quit his post as a company director after 14 years, giving new CEO Satya Nadella an even freer hand to reshape the company.
Mr. Ballmer, fresh off his $2 billion purchase of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball franchise, indicated that his duties as team owner, among other interests, wouldn’t leave enough time to stay on Microsoft’s board.
“I think it would be impractical for me to continue to serve on the board, and it is best for me to move off,” Mr. Ballmer said in a public letter to Mr. Nadella, who became CEO in February. “I see a combination of the Clippers, civic contribution, teaching and study taking a lot of time.”
CNET by Roger Cheng @RogerWCheng July 17, 2014
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Thursday laid out plans to cut as many as 18,000 jobs in the next year.
The software titan had been widely expected to announce the cuts today, but the magnitude of the layoffs was surprisingly large. A vast majority of the cuts — 12,500 — will come from professional and factory positions from the recently acquired Nokia devices and services division.
Microsoft said the company is working on reducing the first 13,000 positions, and many of the employees will be notified in the next six months.
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CNET by Don Reisinger July 17, 2014 6:31 AM PDT
Microsoft exec Stephen Elop is making it abundantly clear: Microsoft has no intention of staying in the Android business.
In a memo emailed to employees on Thursday, Elop said Microsoft’s devices business will concentrate “on the areas where we can add the most value” and noted that Nokia X smartphones, which run on heavily modified versions of Android, will migrate to Windows Phone.
“We plan to deliver additional lower-cost Lumia devices by shifting select future Nokia X designs and products to Windows Phone devices,” Elop, executive vice president of Microsoft Devices & Services, wrote in his memo to employees. “We expect to make this shift immediately while continuing to sell and support existing Nokia X products.”
Nokia’s X line of devices was the company’s attempt to attract more budget-conscious customers to its platform. This was also a major story in the ongoing Microsoft-Nokia saga, since it ran on Android — Microsoft’s chief competitor in the mobile market. It was initially believed that Microsoft would stick with Android on Nokia X devices, but according to Elop, the cheaper end of the smartphone market is a key area of growth …
Mark Hachman@markhachman, Jun 23, 2014 8:00 AMRealizing that business users and consumers alike are producing far more digital content than a few years ago, Microsoft has increased the amount of free OneDrive cloud storage available to Office 365 subscribers by 50 times.
Today, OneDrive comes with seven gigabytes of free storage, and Office 365 comes with 20 gigabytes of OneDrive storage. As of today, that’s changed: Microsoft will increase the free quota to 15 Gbytes, and OneDrive subscribers will receive a whopping 1 terabyte with their subscription. The changes will roll out over the next month.
“We chose that quota few years ago, and frankly, times have changed,” said Angus Logan, the head of product marketing for OneDrive, of the old limits. “The amount of storage that people are needing now, the amount of digital storage they’re spinning off, is quite a bit. Instead of recording 50 Kbytes of notes, I could end up recording 500 megabytes of video with my notes. Or everytime I take my Lumia and push that hardware button it uploads 10 megabytes to the cloud. It’s just a lot more than we needed before.”
By comparison, Logan noted, Dropbox offers 2 Gbytes for
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Editor’s Note:
There are few if any good reasons to cling to the original Windows 8 (or its bigger brother Windows 8.1) that Microsoft introduced released for general availability on October 26, 2012. The kindest thing that could be said was that it was a “rough” launch! With the arrival of June 10, 2014 Microsoft is ending support for Windows 8.1 and urging users to move up to the Windows 8.1 update. Not to do so would be even worse than clinging to an unsupported Windows XP…and the upate is free. Just do it! ;-)) Foster
Mary Jo Foley for All About Microsoft |
Today, June 10, is Microsoft Patch Tuesday. It’s also the deadline for consumers running Windows 8.1 to install the Windows 8.1 Update if they want to continue to receive patches and fixes from Microsoft.
Microsoft originally imposed a deadline of May 13 on consumer users to move to the Windows 8.1 Update. On May 12, Microsoft announced a deadline extension to June 10.
Business users still have until August 12 to move to the Update for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2. Microsoft extended the deadline for those …
By Ed Bott for The Ed Bott Report |
Microsoft’s third shot in the tablet-that-can-turn-into-a-portable-PC category represents a huge improvement over its earlier attempts. I called the first Surface Pro, released in February 2013,“brilliant, quirky, and flawed,” and argued that it “has enough flaws that many potential buyers will either say no outright or play wait and see.”
Last fall’s Surface Pro 2, released in conjunction with Windows 8.1, was basically just a spec bump that added a Haswell processor (improving battery life) and gave the trademark Surface kickstand a second angle.
Surface Pro 3, on the other hand, is a complete redesign that maintains the original Surface Pro vision (and a few of its quirks), while tackling its biggest flaws head-on.
Like its predecessors, the Surface Pro 3 isn’t for everyone. It’s also hard to categorize. Lining it up next to a conventional laptop or a full-size tablet results in an odd set of comparisons and, inevitably, reviews that focus on the mismatches.
I attended last week’s launch event in New York City and came home with a sample of the Surface Pro 3, provided by Microsoft, which I’ve used extensively for the past 10 …
Peter Bright – May 23 2014, 5:43pm EDT (Ara Tecnica)
It’s often been said (though it probably isn’t true) that Microsoft gets things right on the third try—version one sucks, version two is barely adequate, and version three is the one that finally makes a mainstream splash. Does the Surface Pro 3 have what it takes to define a market and hit the big time?
Unlike the Surface Pro 2, which essentially stuck a new processor in an old system, the Surface Pro 3 is all-new. Unlike the Surface Pro 2, the Surface Pro 3 is a reaction to and acknowledgement of at least some of the criticisms leveled at the Surface product range.
And unlike the Surface Pro 2, the Surface Pro 3 is squarely and unambiguously aimed at laptop users. Introducing the new system, Microsoft cited “proprietary Microsoft research” asserting that 96 percent of iPad users also carry laptops. Not necessarily the most credible source—we asked the company if it could provide any information on how it arrived at this figure, but none was forthcoming. Still, we feel it does capture an essential truth. The exact proportion may vary, but many tablet users are also laptop users.
Full …
Are patents choking out innovation or are they are necessary protection for innovation. Randy Peck, Patent Lawyer of Warner, Norcross and Judd Southfield joins the team as co-host to discuss key rulings this week in Apple/Samsung and Google.
John Whitacre, Mary Kumer, and Jesse Lowe present the work of iChallenged and promote the upcoming Walk to End Blindness
Walk to End Blindness: June 7-8, 2014 – 7:00 am Shiawassee Park: Farmington, MI 48336
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